The Great Purge in Russia. On March 14, 1923 : A newspaper headline reads 'Lenin Suffers a stroke, Condition is Serious; Announcement Causes a Sensation in Moscow'. On January 21, 1924 : Another newspaper headline reads 'Lenin is Dead'. Bolshevik leader Lenin laid in a coffin. Senior Soviet officials carrying the body of Lenin in a funeral procession through the snow. People watch the funeral procession. Joseph Stalin with an officer. Stalin comes into power after Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky is forced into an exile. Views of workers pursuing 5-year plan goals: At a railroad train siding building rail infrastructure, with shovels; in logging operations in the snow; in a steel plant. View of coal being transported on conveyer. View of mining operations, with steam shovels filling rail cars. Views of chemical and petroleum facilities. View of hydroelectric power plant turbines and electrical distribution towers and wires. Workers in agriculture, with a truck in a field. Construction workers at large building site. Young machinist working on a lathe in a factory or manufacturing plant. Tailors working in a shop with pictures of Lenin and Stalin on the wall. Steam locomotive pushing train cars including boxcars up a mountain side in Siberia. Soviet "executioner" Nikolai Yezhov and other officers inside a building and footage from the Moscow Trials or sometimes called Moscow Show Trials from 1936 - 1938. Stalin with Bolshevik revolutionaries Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev who were disposed off during the Great Purge. Scenes of Moscow Trial proceedings, with participants wearing earphones. Picture of Nikolai Yezhov.

The US-USSR Moscow Summit on Human rights in Moscow, Soviet Union. U.S. president Ronald Reagan speaks on issues relating to Human rights. Other officials seated in front. He speaks about the right to immigrate and travel. View of the Kremlin in Moscow. U.S. Secretory of State George Pratt Shultz speaks about strategic arms reductions in light of the weapons race. The White house press secretary Marlin Fitzwater at a press conference. The board reads 'Department of State'. Exteriors of the building. View of protesters permitted to demonstrate in the Soviet Union indicating some improvement in conditions. In Washington DC, citizens march on streets demonstrating for the freedom of Soviet Jews. The soviet scholar Peter Reddaway speaks about the reforms and highlights reforms and changing Soviet policy on open-ended internment of mental health patients. People pray inside a church in the Soviet Union. George Weigel, the president of the James Madison Foundation, speaks of importance of religious freedom in the Soviet union on a news panel. Weigel states that religious freedom is a key test of Glasnost and Perestroika. Exterior view of the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family under construction in Washington DC, built by Ukrainian American Catholics. People in the Soviet Union protest, marching on a street and holding signs and pickets. A large military parade in the Soviet Union in Red Square.

The Moscow summit between the U.S. and USSR in Moscow, Russia. Pictures depict the tribes and people of America. People pack the pictures in a box for the visit of the Soviet Union people. Some pictures of the Russian art. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev visits the United States. People on the street to receive him. The U.S. Secretary of State George Pratt Shultz and his wife visit Russia. People greet them. Gorbachev and the U.S. president Ronald Reagan at a summit in Washington DC. Americans at the summit. Animation depicts the merging of cultures between the two nations and the exchange of magazines. American rock star Billy Joel and his group perform in the Soviet Union on New Year's eve. Cultural exchange between the two countries includes a piano performance of Horowitz in Moscow and a ballet performance in the United States by the Bolshoi Ballet. An exchange program at school level. Soviet children at an American outdoors ropes and climbing activity during an exchange program. The talks held to discuss vital issues in New York. People sit in an amphitheater with officials at a Chautaqua Talk in 1987. The people of the Soviet Union watch an "Information USA" touring exhibit in the Soviet Union that presents American culture. A young Russian boy speaks about his interest in American culture. People watch a science exhibition. Astronauts of the USA and Soviet Union in a spacecraft. Collaboration of the two nations to protect the ozone layer. Officials of the two nations sign an agreement relating to the nuclear power plants. George Shultz, the U.S. secretary of State, inaugurates a system that communicates nuclear dangers. A woman in the communication room. Food grain supplied to the Soviets. Soviet Union tanks and soldiers in Afghanistan. Soldiers walk on a street. American journalist Nicholas Daniel disembarks a plane after his release. The view of the American Embassy. Mikhail Gorbachev with U.S. President Ronald Reaga

Series 'Why We Fight' episode "Prelude to War" depicts the battles during World War II. United States soldiers parade on street lead by a band. Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.December 7, 1941. The London Blitz with buildings destroyed and burning. The Eiffel Tower in Paris with Nazi flag flying atop it. German troops marching into Paris, through the Arch of Triumph. Japanese warplanes bombing shanghai, China, in 1937. Chinese residents running for shelter. Glimpse of German "Schwerer Gustav" 80 cmrailway gun firing during German offensive against Soviet Union in 1941. German forces entering Czechoslovakia in 1938. German mounted troops entering France in 1940. Heavy guns firing. German ships en route to Norway 1940. German Ju-52 aircraft flying low over trees. Montage showing rapid succession of war scenes, including heavy guns firing, smoke rising, explosions, an aircraft shot down and crashing straight down, German armor on the move, German Ju-52 aircraft dropping paratroopers into Holland and one flying over Athens, Greece, with Mount Lykabettus in the background. More of the same with Narrator mentioning Belgium, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Russia (where citizens are seen digging anti-tank trenches and fortifications). Cavalry charging across a field. A German tank rolling forward. A German Dornier Do-17 bomber taking off, and bombs falling.

Film opens showing Adolf Hitler, in World War 2, with Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Army Commander-in-Chief, and other top military members, planning for Operation Barbarossa (Attack to the East toward the Soviet Union). As he walks away from the table, he speaks briefly to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy). Next Hitler and Marshall Hermann Goering are seen strolling and conversing at the Eastern Front headquarters, "the wolf's lair," (Wolfschanze) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (now Poland). Scene shifts to the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin is seen speaking at a podium. A large outdoor audience, including some soldiers, is gathered to listen. Images showing the Soviet people responding to defend against the German Nazi invasion. Closeup of Soviet soldiers with shouldered weapons. The nearest is holding a PPSh-41 submachine gun. Closeups of Soviet women and men in military uniforms. Soviet citizens heading to enlist in the military. Soldiers marching loosely n a city street. Patriotic singing is heard in background. A formation of Soviet women marching. Some carry furled banners. Soviet women carrying simple farm implements, marching in a rural part of Russia and joining others who are working to prepare anti-tank ditches and barriers in the countryside. Views of hundreds of people working on this project. Weapons being provided to rural Soviet guerrillas who will operate behind enemy lines. Anti-aircraft guns being set up overlooking a harbor. Closeup of Soviet soldiers manipulating controls on a camouflaged anti-aircraft gun and others maneuvering a four-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun. Local farm family members on makeshift towers keeping watch over huge fields of wheat. Soviet farmers harvesting the wheat with scythes. An armed farmer shielding his eyes as he searches the skies for German airplanes. Closeup of a man cutting wheat with a scythe as women gather the sheaves behind him. Motorized harvesters at work in a field of wheat. Closeup of a woman operating one. Tractors used in harvesting. Women and children gleaning what remains behind in the harvested fields. Farmers driving their cattle East (away from advancing Germans). Evacuating Soviet people employ a scorched earth policy, burning their homes, barns, and anything that might be of value to advancing German forces. Views of burning houses. Soviet industrial enterprises working around the clock producing war materiel. Seen are petroleum facilities; a large plant expelling coke; coal pouring into a barge; men at work at a steel furnace; ribbons of hot steel moving out of rollers; a huge manufacturing plant in operation. Next, a Soviet Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank is seen moving across a field. Russian Ploikarpov 1-16 fighter planes in flight. A large formation of German Dornier DO 17 bombers in flight high overhead. Soviet forces retreating. Views of fallen German soldiers, fires burning, and remnants of a downed German bomber. German prisoners of war marching under guard and others surrendering with hands in the air. Closeups of some German prisoners. A Russian Petlyakov Pe-2 aircraft parked in snow with engines running. Fallen German soldiers lying in the snow along a roadway, in Winter of 1941-42. A Russian Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank maneuvering in the snow. Russian Bt-7 Light Cavalry Tanks proceeding toward the front in Springtime, 1942.

Poland aids the Soviet Union during German-Russian Combat in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during World War II. General Sikorsky of Poland is greeted by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Chairman of the Council of the People's Commissars of the Soviet Union at Stalingrad. General Sikorsky and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin plan an agreement for mutual defense. Two flags flying from flag poles. Polish troops stand at attention. Soviet or Polish troops march. Soviet troops at battle stations in a field. Soviet tank corps men run out and jump into their tanks. A tank goes out through a city near Moscow. Battle action during winter shows Soviet troops advancing to meet on coming Germans. A large gun mounted on a railroad (RR) car. A Soviet officer gives a signal to fire guns. All types of artillery-guns mounted on RR cars, armored trains, tanks field artillery, large cannon fire. Several buildings being demolished by shell blasts. Tanks advance. The Soviets advance across snow covered terrain. Soviet civilians gather up German equipment and pile it around in the area. Dead Germans on the ground. Destroyed German mechanized equipment. Observation towers and lookout posts commanded by the Soviets.